How deflating for the fans of the NFL’s New England Patriots:The news that was announced shortly after 5:30 p.m. ET this past Monday that QB Tom Brady would be suspended for a total of four regular-season games (plus the lost #1 draft pick in 2016, the fourth-round draft pick in 2017 and a million bucks too) for his role in “DeflateGate” was harsher than we ever thought -- remember we wrote in a Jim Sez piece last weekend that we expected bad-boy Brady to get suspended for two games only – and so everyone and his brother has been weighing on the punishment doled out by the league to “Captain America” and so we wanted to take this is a different direction.

Like what has Brady meant from an all-important pointspread angle to the Patriots ever since he missed that whole 2008 season with a knee injury suffered in a Game 1 non-cover win against Kansas City.So, here’s a year-by-year lowdown of what the Patriots have done ATS (against the spread) since the start of the 2009 season with Brady at the helm:

YEAR ATS RECORD HOW YEAR ENDED

2009

9-8-0

Wild Card loss to Baltimore

2010

10-6-1

Divisional loss to NY Jets

2011

10-9-0

Super Bowl loss to NY Giants

2012

10-8-0

Champ. Game loss to Baltimore

2013

9-9-0

Champ. Game loss to Denver

2014

11-8-0

Super Bowl win versus Seattle

Okay, so go ahead and add up the past six seasons and you’ll see New England is a composite 59-48-1 spreadwise (that’s a .551 winning percentage) and keep in mind in that ’08 campaign the Pats went 8-7 ATS following that aforementioned Week 1 spread loss to Kansas City.

Not bad but perhaps not as profitable as one might think what with Brady at the controls of a team that’s played in 12 post-season games – including two Super Bowls the past six years – and one of the many questions that will surround this 2015 Pats team is how will they fare spreadwise in these four games right at the start:

Home to Pittsburgh, at Buffalo, home to Jacksonville and, following a Week 4 bye, at Dallas before Brady’s back for the Week 6 game – of all places – at Indianapolis (and, yes, we’re assuming NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Executive VP for Football Operations Troy Vincent won’t reduce the length of this four-game suspension).

Maybe QB Jimmy Garoppolo (19-of-27 for 181 yards passing in relief of Brady last year) and the Patriots will “take advantage of” the less-costly Las Vegas price tags and crank out three or four pointspread “W’s” here during this time frame – who knows? – but while everyone rails on regarding the Brady suspension we just wanted to say if you had $100 per play on all of the Patriots’ games since the start of 2009 you’d be up a tidy sum of $620 and so maybe you can “kick in” and pay for some of that $1M fine the poor ole Pats have to pay for their cheating ways.

THE BASEBALL REPORTOkay, so we’re only approximately 20 percent through this 2015 Major-League Baseball season but – believe us – trends are developing and here’s some key stats involving how MLB teams fare when facing left-handed and/or right-handed starting pitching:

In the National League …The Colorado Rockies have lost four of their five starts against left-handed starting pitchers …The Los Angeles Dodgers are an electric 19-8 against righty starters and that includes a 13-1 mark versus RHPs at home …The Miami Marlins are 5-1 against lefty starters so far this season but note the Fish are just 10-17 versus righties …The New York Mets are 17-8 against right-handed starters and that includes a 12-2 Citi Field record …The beleaguered Philadelphia Phillies are just 8-19 versus RHP starters this year …The St. Louis Cardinals are 18-5 versus RHP starters including a sparkling 12-1 home mark at Busch Stadium …And both the San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals are an identical 6-2 against lefty starters this season.

In the American League …The Chicago White Sox have lost four-of-five decisions against left-handed starters …The Cleveland Indians are a murky 3-9 when facing lefty starters this season …The Detroit Tigers have won seven of their 10 starts made against LHP starters …The Houston Astros are 9-4 when facing LHP starters and note the AL West leaders are 8-3 away when challenged by RHP …The Minnesota Twins have won 10 of their 15 starts against lefty starters …The New York Yankees are a tasty 16-7 when facing RHP starters this season …The Oakland A’s have lost five-of-six starts made against lefty starters …The Toronto Blue Jays are 5-1 versus LHP starters but just 11-16 against RHP starters.

Well, maybe that’s a poor choice of words since Mike Budenholzer’s squad doesn’t do a lot of flashy stuff on the court but following Monday’s 106-101 hang-on-for-dear-life win/cover at Washington, there was Atlanta F Paul Millsap proclaiming, “That’s how we play. That’s how we’ve been playing all year.”The Hawks dished out 30 assists on 41 made field goals – both PG Jeff Teague and key reserve PG Dennis Schroder piled up eight assists each in Game 4 – and if that sort of share-the-ball mentality is present here and if Kyle Korver (just two FGs in 36 minutes in Game 4) re-discovers his downtown touch than the heavy-duty home favorites should regain the home court advantage here this evening.

The Wizards – more than likely – won’t suit up injured PG John Wall but one word of advice to Washington’s age-old star Paul Pierce:If you’re gonna keep saying “That’s why they brought me here” than you’ve got to make all the big last-second shots (and especially the wide-open ones)!Here’s how this playoff series has gone so far between the Wizards and the Hawks (and note all home teams are in CAPS):

DATE

WINNER

SPREAD

LOSER

SCORE

5-3

Washington

+ 5.5

ATLANTA

104-98

5-5

ATLANTA

- 9.5

Washington

106-90

5-9

WASHINGTON

+ 4

Atlanta

103-101

5-11

Atlanta

- 4.5

WASHGTON

106-101

WESTERN CONFERENCE –#5 MEMPHIS at #1 GOLDEN STATE – approximately 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT; Series tied 2-2Nice to see the MVP play like an MVP – you can exhale now, Stephen Curry, the critics are off your back!Curry’s 33-point performance in Monday’s decisive 101-84 win at 4-point featured lots of highlights by the league MVP (including a 27-footer at the end of the first quarter and some late second-quarter key hoops that served to break the game open) and the get-even win by the Warriors came on a night when fellow “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson managed just 15 points on 15 FG attempts.

Here, Golden State is hoping to duplicate the formula of Game 4 that included just 4-of-15 FG shooting by G Mike Conley and the fact the Grizzlies managed just four trifectas for the whole game.

One X-factor to eyeball tonight (and we hate to be always agreeing with TNT’s Charles Barkley):Grizz F Zach Randolph – who attempted only 10 shots in that Game 4 blowout loss – must double his shot attempts here … or else!Here’s how the playoff series has gone so far between the Grizzlies and the Warriors (home teams in CAPS):

DATE

WINNER

SPREAD

LOSER

SCORE

5-3

GOLDEN ST.

- 10.5

Memphis

101-86

5-5

Memphis

+ 10

GOLDEN ST

97-90

5-9

MEMPHIS

+ 4.5

Golden St.

99-89

5-11

Golden St.

- 4

MEMPHIS

101-84

Note …Jim Hurley and his Network of Handicappers and Bloggers continue to rake in the profits in this year’s NBA Playoffs and we’ll continue to rock-n-roll through the post-season all week long.

Go online right here at www.jimhurley.com or call our exclusive toll-free telephone # of 1-800-323-4453 each/every day and cash in with all the NBA Playoffs and remember there’s Major-League Baseball on tap every day too!

NOTE: More NBA Playoff coverage in the next Jim Sez plus get our MLB and NFL Notes too.